Lara Sarkissian & Jemma Woolmore "THRESHOLDS" | ISM Hexadome

Sound artist Lara Sarkissian and video artist Jemma Woolmore approach the ISM Hexadome installation as a transsensorial space for storytelling on topics of territory, recognition, and memory. Lara Sarkissian’s work is an ambient electronic landscape referencing Armenian music, field recordings, and churches (both in their sonic and physical form); as the architecture of these churches and monasteries have often been designed with the intentions of acoustic ecology and spatial experiences. The musical score collages elements of voices, literature, hymns, and instruments, holding space for the modern-day narratives tied to displacement, both past and present.

Jemma Woolmore's visuals explore the fragile boundary between utopia and dystopia. The Hexadome screens become a landscape to be navigated and divided, creating symbolic borders that are enforced, blurred, or dissolved throughout the work.

Jemma Woolmore is a Berlin-based video artist. Blurring the boundaries between real and virtual, Jemma’s work explores the spatial and emotional possibilities of light and image in performative environments. Spanning audio-visual performance, installation, and bespoke visual and sculptural design, her work shows a strong sensitivity for combining light, sound, and structure.

Lara Sarkissian is an Armenian-American sound artist/composer, DJ (FOOZOOL), and filmmaker based in San Francisco, CA. She is co-founder of Club Chai, a music label, radio show, and curatorial project that artistically hybridizes non-western sounds and visuals with contemporary western culture. Lara Sarkissian’s electronic music focuses on ambient and experimental productions, and scores films and installations.